21 Items

Satellite image of Hurricane Katia (left) making landfall over the Mexican state of Veracruz, Hurricane Irma (center) approaching Cuba, and Hurricane Jose reaching peak intensity

NOAA

Journal Article - Review of Environmental Economics and Policy

Recommendations for Improving the Treatment of Risk and Uncertainty in Economic Estimates of Climate Impacts in the Sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report

| June 04, 2018

Large discrepancies persist between projections of the physical impacts of climate change and economic damage estimates. These discrepancies increase with increasing global average temperature projections. Based on this observation, the authors recommend that in its Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) improve its approach to the management of the uncertainties inherent in climate policy decisions.

ash in the upper atmosphere

Wikimedia CC/Peter Shanks

Journal Article - Environmental Politics

Fast, Cheap, and Imperfect? US Public Opinion about Solar Geoengineering

| May 2018

Solar geoengineering, which seeks to cool the planet by reflecting a small fraction of sunlight back into space, has drawn the attention of scientists and policymakers as climate change remains unabated. Unlike mitigation, solar geoengineering could quickly and cheaply lower global temperatures. It is also imperfect. Its environmental impacts remain unpredictable, and its low cost and immediate effects may result in "moral hazard," potentially crowding out costly mitigation efforts. There is little understanding about how the public will respond to such tradeoffs.

Solar One power plant

NREL

Journal Article - Nature Energy

Policy Sequencing toward Decarbonization

| November 2017

Many economists have long held that carbon pricing—either through a carbon tax or cap-and-trade—is the most cost-effective way to decarbonize energy systems, along with subsidies for basic research and development. Meanwhile, green innovation and industrial policies aimed at fostering low-carbon energy technologies have proliferated widely. Most of these predate direct carbon pricing. Low-carbon leaders such as California and the European Union (EU) have followed a distinct policy sequence that helps overcome some of the political challenges facing low-carbon policy by building economic interest groups in support of decarbonization and reducing the cost of technologies required for emissions reductions. However, while politically effective, this policy pathway faces significant challenges to environmental and cost effectiveness.

the passage of day into night in this view of ocean and clouds over Earth

NASA/ISS Crew

Journal Article - Nature Climate Change

Solar Geoengineering Reduces Atmospheric Carbon Burden

| September 2017

Solar geoengineering is no substitute for cutting emissions, but could nevertheless help reduce the atmospheric carbon burden. In the extreme, if solar geoengineering were used to hold radiative forcing constant under RCP8.5, the carbon burden may be reduced by ∼100 GTC, equivalent to 12–26 percent of twenty-first-century emissions at a cost of under US$0.5 per tCO2.

Analysis & Opinions - The Guardian

Fear of Solar Geoengineering is Healthy — But Don't Distort Our Research

| Mar. 29, 2017

"Fear of solar geoengineering is justified. So is fear of the largely unaccounted-for tail risks of climate change, which make the problem much worse than most realise. Ending fossil fuels will not eliminate climate risks, it just stops the increase of atmospheric carbon. That carbon and its climate risk cannot be wished away.

There is a prudent case for an international, transparent, and sustainable solar geoengineering research programme that includes field experiments with appropriate governance."

Heads of State participate in the opening ceremony of the High-Level Event of COP 22, November 15, 2016.

Creative Commons

Analysis & Opinions - Foreign Affairs

Cop22 After Trump

| November 21, 2016

"...[E]ven if the impacts of a Trump slump in U.S. domestic climate action are manageable, the impact on global policy may not be. The concern here is not immediate support for new coal plants or the immediate risk of conflict; it is the way in which a weakening of international institutions might initiate a negative feedback loop played out over many years and decades."

teaser image

Analysis & Opinions - WIRED

To Help Cool the Climate, Add Aerosol

| October 5, 2016

"Of course, solar geoengineering alone cannot stabilize the climate. The world must cut carbon dioxide emissions. But solar geoengineering is unique because it can help address already committed climate change—future climate change locked in due to past emissions. Cutting carbon emissions alone will not have immediate effects, given the length of time that carbon already in the atmosphere stays there."

Discussion Paper - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Belfer Center

Confronting Deep and Persistent Climate Uncertainty

| July 2016

Estimates of damages from climate change are dependent on estimates of global-average-temperature increase, which in turn depend on how marginal increases in greenhouse-gas concentrations affect temperature. The "likely" range of temperature increase from a doubling of concentrations has stalled for 35 years at 1.5–4.5° C—making estimates of damages difficult and unreliable.

Analysis & Opinions - MarketWatch

Here’s a Way to Cool the Planet without Merely Reducing Emissions

| June 16, 2016

"China has initiated a limited research program on albedo modification. The U.S. has not. Given that albedo modification is the kind of technology that necessitates an open, transparent, and international research effort — precisely the kind of effort in which the U.S. excels — this is a serious failing."